


Firecracker

by Created_by_teen_fury



Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 17:40:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18428915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Created_by_teen_fury/pseuds/Created_by_teen_fury
Summary: After a mission gone wrong, Jackie and Jason find themselves stuck in an ice cave with no way out. Jackie is finding it harder and harder to withstand the freezing temperature due to her weakness to the cold. Not thinking straight, Jackie begins to reveal her feelings to Jason.





	Firecracker

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on my tumblr account @created-by-teen-fury. On my blog you’d be able to find more information about Jackie as well as my other OCs, like Bella and Amari who are briefly mentioned in this story. Also I’ve written some other stories that haven’t quite made it on here yet.

30 minutes have passed since the mission went wrong. 30 minutes since they lost connection from the rest. 30 minutes of being stuck in a large gapping ice hole in the ground with the seemingly most annoying person on the planet.

    
At this point, Jason had stopped trying to climb out the pit he found himself in. Jackie on the other hand was attempting to clamber up the side of the ice-covered rocks. A thump signaled her 11th attempt, but who’s counting? (Jason was. He most certainly was). Pressing on, Jackie brushed off her shame and once again latched her hand on an uneven bit of the rock. She settled her snow-covered boot onto the ice and sprung upwards, aiming to anchor herself onto the next stone. Her hand briefly grasped the rock above her. She let out a cry of victory, though it was short lived seeing as the ice around her fingertips caused her to slip. Falling 5 feet, her back collided with the stone-cold floor once again.

“You know, if you’re so powerful why don’t you just use your pretty magic to fly you out of here?” Jason’s words rang through the cave, freezing Jackie’s next attempt to scale to frozen tower.

She swirled around to face him. He sat against the wall across from her. Crossing over to him she pointed a finger to his forehead, which he immediately slapped away, “First of all ya funker! My powers aren’t “magic”! It’s stone hard science! Real! Rooted in re-al-i-ty. NOT FICTION!” Jackie huffed out a puff of cold breath, “And secondly! If you must know all this frosty air is great for talking snowman, but not for a wild Jackie! Think of it like a power outage. You know the ones in the winter where the power lines snap because-”

“Because they freeze. I got it.” He was quick to cut her off her science lecture, “So what I’m hearing is that your useless? Great.” He pulled out a communicator from his inside jacket pocket. After clicking a few buttons, he let out a growl before hitting it several times before trying again. Throwing it to the ground beside him, he let out a grunt and leaned his head against the stones behind him.

Jackie let out gasp, “I am OFFENDED! I am still plenty useful! I almost got out just by climbing!”

“No. No you didn’t. The closest you got was being 6 feet in the air before ultimately crashing and burning.”

Pouting, Jackie sat against the other side of the cave, wrapping her arms around herself, “Well at least I made an attempt…” A tingle ran up Jackie’s spine. She hugged herself closer trying to conserve the rest of her body heat.

It grew quiet for a bit, before Jackie let out an annoyed grunt, “This is so boring!” Taking a bundle of snow into her hands, she flung it at the man across from her. A loud splat rang across the cave.

His eyes narrowed has his hands brushed off the slush, “Keep your boredom on your side of the cave.”

She let out a huff of air, her bottom lip jutting out, “You’re no fun…” When she didn’t hear a reply, she made a move to grab another clump of snow.

“Don’t even think about it.”

Jason watched her pace back and forth, clutching her hands tightly to her chest. Her steps began motivated, but quickly turned into a sloppy misstep. Occasionally she would trip over her own feet before retaining her balance. Finally, her knees buckled underneath her, causing to tumble back to the ice-covered ground. Before Jason could make a move to help her sit up, Jackie’s head shot up from its place on the ground, her arms flailing in front of her., “Well would you look at that! Must’ve slipped on that ice over there!”

“Maybe you should sit down for a bit. You seem a little pale…”

“Nope! I’m great! Just great!”

The pair fell into a silence, not sure what else to say. It wasn’t until 5 minutes later when he noticed the first red flag. Jackie was shaking violently. Her hands ran up and down her arm trying to create enough friction to stay warm. Her teeth chattered against each other as she took slow breaths, each escaping her mouth like smoke.

“Hey… Are you like... Okay?”

Waving a dismissive hand in his direction, Jackie let out a faint chuckle, “Of c-course!” Her speech was slurred, while at the same time shaking with the rest of her body, “Just a little cold! I’m sure I’ll be fine!”

Jason didn’t seem convinced. Scooching closer to Jackie, he placed his index and middle finger against her pulse point checking her weak pulse. Almost immediately he pulled away. “Holy shit. You’re literally freezing!” He started to shrug off his jacket, but two shaky hands stopped him.

“Nope! You... You keep your jacket. I’m fine really. In fact,” Leaning against the wall behind her, she began to stand up, “I’m ready to make another attempt to climb out of here!” Before she could take another step, Jackie collapsed, falling forward.

Jason was quick to catch her shoulders, gently placing her on the ground again, “Yeah. I don’t think so Firecracker.” Once again Jason made a move to remove his leather jacket. This time no one stopped him. Wrapping it around her shoulders he hastily zipped it all the way up. “Now don’t move. I’m going to try the communicator again.” 

The next 15 minutes were slow, matching Jackie’s new sluggish attitude. Frost covered her finger tips, despite her efforts to keep them from the cold. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but the longer time dragged on, the faster Jackie’s spirits fell.

Jason focused on his communicator trying everything he could to warm up the software. He let out snarl, stuffing the electronic into his pocket. Turning his attention back to Jackie he let out a panicked breath, “Shit!” His hands gripped her shoulder, squeezing slightly, “No no no. You gotta stay awake Firecracker. Don’t close your eyes on me!”

Her head rolled to her shoulder as her eyelids parted slightly, “Hey… What’s the big idea...” Her words were lethargic, “What’s a lady gotta do to get some beauty sleep around here.”

“Beauty sleep can wait bub. I’m sure your friends would rather have you alive than dead.” He looked towards the only exit, in hopes of seeing someone above them. With no one in sight, he let out a growl reaching for his gun.

Seeing this, Jackie gripped Jason’s arm as tight as she cold, albeit it was still rather weak. Jason didn’t bother to move so she kept her fingers wrapped around his forearm, “What are you doing…”

“If I shoot, there’s a chance the others might hear us. You can’t spend any more time down here.”

Jackie shook her head and grabbed at the gun, “noooo. Avalanches.” Her arms collapsed back at her side. Her head falling back against the wall.

Jason sighed before holstering his gun, opting instead for wrapping an arm around the girl. “Well, you got any better suggestions?”

Jackie’s head bobbed up and down before flopping onto Jason’s shoulder, “Mmhm. You should let me-”

“I’m not letting you climb that wall Jackie.”

“Why not ya funker?”

Jason’s head shook at her antics, “You are a piece of work.”

“Yeah. A piece of artwork…” Her voice began to fade off. 

Jason shook her lightly, “Stay awake Jackie. We’ll get out of here at some point.” With his free arm Jason wrapped his hands around Jackie’s shaking ones.

Letting out a groan, Jackie curled up closer to Jason, “This isn’t fair. Why aren’t you cold?”

“Oh, I am cold. I just guess you can’t handle it.”

She let out a cry of outrage, which ended up turning into more of a whimper, “I can so handle it buster!”

“Whatever you say Firecracker.”

Before the cave could fall into another awkward silence, giggles slowly tumbled out of Jackie’s mouth. “Hey Jason… Jay... The Red Hood, buckaroo, pal, buddy, chum, comrade-”

“What now?” His head flopped against the cave walls, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling.

Her ice-covered fingers prodded at Jason’s neck, causing his head to jerk away, “Did you know… that,” She paused taking another breath watching it drift away. Her hands jumped above her trying to catch the fleeting cloud before it could get away. The clearing of a throat brought her back to reality for second, “Oh yeah! I was saying something…” She went silent, looking off into empty space, her lips moving, but nothing coming out, “Oh I know… You! You my stunning compadre,” she poked him in the chest, before her arm slumped back to her side, “you’re the reason I’m in this mess…”

His eyebrow raised and she stared at her pointedly, “Oh yeah? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Cause you’re really really cute.” Giggles bubbled from her throat as she placed his hands on his cheek and began to pull at them, “Did you know that? Cause I know that. You’re like… insanely attractive, like just the hottest-”

Red crept up Jason’s neck. Shaking his head, he placed a hand over the babbling girl’s mouth. “Easy there Firecracker. You don’t want to spill all your secrets.”

She was quick to brush him off, and continued to speak nonsense into the universe despite the gloved hand over her mouth. The vigilante sighed, “Fine, suite yourself,” and he released his gentle grip.

“-And like they tooold me not to go, but! Get this! You loooked so fine! And I just like… I had to go.” She continued on like she was never stopped in the first place, “I like heard about you before ya know. But I didn’t think you’d look this good. Is that even legal??? Oh! Guess what!”

Tried to keep all his amusement to himself, but alas, he could not help but let a small chuckle ring out, “What?”

Her lips twisted up into a dorky grin, “When we’re gonna have like 8 dogs when we get married! And I’ve already thought of names like Bub-”

“Married? You’ve already thought of this far ahead? Hate to break it to you doll, but we just met.”

“Sooooooo? That one movie someone proposed to someone they just met! What was it called? Frosty? Snowy? Wait I got it! Frozen! How fitting…” 

“If I remember correctly, that didn’t turn out so well…”

Her head flopped against his chest. Sticking her tongue out at him Jackie exclaimed, “Well I guess we’ll just have to make it work Buddy…” She let out a tiny squeak of a yawn and nestled closer to Jason, “I’m getting really really sleepy…” 

He shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips, “I know Jackie, but you gotta stay awake a little bit longer okay?”

She let out a long groan, eyes struggling to stay open, “But I don’t wanna…” 

Mimicking her tone, Jason droned, “But you have too!”

Jackie huffed, her cheeks puffing up, “fine…” Jason pulled her closer, trying to lessen the shakes she was emitting.

Minutes later, the crunching of snow was heard above them. Jason’s head immediately perked up, looking towards the source. Soon several other footsteps came into range along with soft familiar voices.

“Hey!” Jason’s voice boomed across the cave, causing the commotion to come to a halt. “We’re down here!”

Almost immediately a rope was thrown down to them, followed by a voice from above, “Climb up!” It was Dick.

“Small problem with that plan!” Jason’s reply was curt, accompanied by an eye roll. His gaze shifted towards Jackie, who once again, was almost asleep.

There was a slight smack heard followed by a cry of surprise, “Idiot.” Soon after, Bella emerged from the shadows and kneeled in front of the pair, “How is she? How long has it been?”

“At least 45 minutes, maybe more. She keeps trying to fall asleep.”

She nodded before calling out to the people above, “She can’t move. We’ll need help.”

Using the rope, Conner slid down into the abyss, “Here, I can jump high enough to get her out.”

Jason nodded. Gently picking Jackie up he placed her into Conner’s arms. “She needs emergency care immediately.”

Nodding, Conner made sure she was secure before leaping out of the pit. Bella followed his lead by once again dissipating into the shadows. Letting out a sigh Jason started to ascend the rope.

By the time he reached the surface, Jackie had already been taken into the bioship. Amari sat her sister’s side with her hand stretched over her, speeding up time around Jackie to melt the ice off her body.

After making sure she was okay, Jason collapsed into a chair and loudly exclaimed, “I am never going on a mission with you bastards again.”

———————————————

The diner doors flew open, revealing Jason Todd. He took a look around the establishment that was full to the brim with local citizens. He’s gaze fell upon just the person he was looking for. At the counter there was a girl smothered by three blankets, covered head to toe in fuzzy clothing, and hunched over a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

His boots thudded against the tile floor as he crossed over to her, and lightly tapped the top of her head. The stool turned around and Jason was soon faced with the sight of a shivery Jackie. She smiled once she laid eyes on the vigilante who was now sporting civilian clothes, “Well look who took the journey to see little ole’ me!” She voice was scratchy and quieter than normal.

“Wow… You look like shit.”

Her grin broadened as she poked him in the chest, “You sure know how to flatter a girl dontcha!” She grabbed her mug before taking a swig of its contents, “So what did you need buckaroo? Or did you just come her to see my awful good looks?”

A smile pulled at his lips as he shook his head, “I’m just here for my Jacket Jackie.”

Jason stood there, his fingers drumming against the counter, waiting for her return. Soon enough Jackie emerged from the back holding his brown leather jacket in her arms, “You’re trusty clothing article has arrived!” 

He took his jacket from her before tugging it on, “Thanks for keeping it in shape. Well I should probably go. I’ve got somethings to take care of tonight.” He turned to leave, but before he could get far, he redirected his attention back to Jackie, “Oh and just so you know, when we get married, we are NOT naming our dog Bub.”

Jason watched amused as Jackie’s mouth opened and closed trying to get the right words out. Her eyes were wider than saucers, and her face turned completely red. She took a big gulp before yelling, “You heard that?! I thought that was in my head! ARE YOU A MIND READER???”

“I also heard how incredibly attractive you seem to think I am.” His smirk grew as he watched Jackie stumble over her words. Patting her head, he headed towards the door, but not before yelling, “Til next time Firecracker!”.


End file.
